Music Box
by Crittab
Summary: Annie's internship for her graduate program is stressing her out. Jeff is determined to give her a night of absolute relaxation. Established relationship.


**Title: **Music Box

**Rating: **R

**Spoilers/Warnings: **None

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Community, yo.

**Summary: **Annie's internship for her graduate program is stressing her out. Jeff is determined to give her a night of absolute relaxation. Established relationship.

**A/N: **Another old prompt fill by midtega: Intimate moment Jeff and Annie in a slow dance from their bedroom or apartment. Annie is wearing Jeff's shirt and nothing underneath. Jeff only in his boxers. Go, smut away.

**A/N 2:** PLEASE listen to the song _Music Box_ by Cinematic Orchestra on youtube when the song is cued. It just completely sets the tone. You'll 'get it' if you listen to the song.

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**Music Box**

It was nearly 9:30 on a Tuesday night when Annie finally arrived home. Her internship with Greendale General Hospital had been running her ragged, and combined with her studies as a first year graduate student in the University of Boulder's Health Care Management program, she barely had time to breathe let alone get anything else done.

It didn't help that the people she worked with were miserable. Truly, every last one of them seemed to genuinely hate their jobs, and took great pleasure in making the new interns feel the same. Not a day went by that she didn't question her choice to join this field fifteen times, at least.

The one thing that kept her sane on nights like this was the knowledge that she would be going home to a boyfriend who loved her and put up with her now permanent crabbiness.

Annie and Jeff had gotten together shortly into their final year at Greendale, and by the end of the year she'd moved in with him. It hadn't always been an easy road, but after three years of skirting around their feelings for each other, both Jeff and Annie had been determined to make their relationship work. All issues aside, they loved and needed each other, and that was worth the effort.

Once Annie started her graduate program, she realized that schools other than Greendale were a lot harder than she'd come to expect from post-secondary education. Her undergrad had been a breeze, all things considered, and hadn't prepared her in the least for the tough road to her masters at a proper university.

Jeff was always supportive of her goal to get her masters, although Annie was willing to bet he'd questioned it more than a few times when she came home tired and haggard after a fourteen hour day at the hospital, working with some of the most miserable people known to mankind. If he had any doubts, though, he was kind enough to keep them to himself. Annie appreciated that about Jeff. He might not be first in line to help her study for her finals, but he was always there to lend a shoulder or an ear when she needed to vent.

Tonight, though, Annie was just spent, physically and emotionally. Some doctor had made her tell a family about the death of their loved one, even though that's not the job of the administration. A nurse had called her in to empty a bedpan, even though, again, not her job. She had literally become the dumping ground for every single job that hospital staff didn't want to do themselves. It was infuriating, especially since the actual administration at the hospital didn't seem to give a crap whether she was shadowing them or the doctors.

As she finally struggled with the door to her and Jeff's apartment, she felt just about ready to throw in the towel. Screw the hospital, screw health care administration... she could be a carnie or something. She didn't need to follow her dreams.

She barely realized what was happening when the door opened in front of her and she stumbled through it into Jeff's chest.

"Oof," she mumbled. Jeff frowned down at her and pulled her more fully into the apartment, shutting the door behind her.

"You okay, babe?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her. She shook her head, her forehead attached to his chest.

"I hate life," she groaned. Jeff let out a breath and pulled away from her to help her remove her backpack and coat. She just stood there limply as he dragged the items away from her.

"Crappy day?" he asked. She gave a pathetic nod.

"Would you be disappointed in me if I quit and joined the circus?" Jeff quirked a small grin.

"You only have two months left of the internship from Hell, Annie. Stick it out until then and if you still want, we can discuss Barnum and Bailey, okay?" She groaned and let her head fall back against his chest.

"There's got to be an easier way to get a job in this field," she mused aloud. Jeff chuckled.

"Well, you could always fake a degree. It worked for me." She pulled away and raised an eyebrow.

"No it didn't."

"Well... maybe not in the long term," he amended. "But I got a good ten years of practise out of that Colombia degree before they realized it was fake." Annie offered a small, tired grin. "Alright, you're clearly dead. Why don't you go get in the shower and we'll turn in early." She frowned.

"Are you saying I stink?"

"I'm saying you may have spilled a little when emptying Mr. Johnson's bedpan." She glanced down at her pants and made a face.

"Fine, you win," she allowed. She shrugged by him, disappearing into the bathroom, hoping to make it through her shower without falling asleep under the spray.

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Jeff frowned as Annie walked away. She'd been getting more and more sullen over the past month that she'd been on internship with the hospital, and clearly her time there was not about to get better. He'd been tempted on several occasions to go down to the hospital and speak to her manager, but he knew it wasn't his place. Annie was a grown woman who had to deal with her own crap—she didn't need her brute of a boyfriend threatening her jackass boss into treating her right.

Of course, the thought of doing just that brought a smile to his face.

Nonetheless, he knew what Annie needed from him now was simply support. A hug, a kind word, and lots and lots of good ol' fashioned stress-relieving sex. If there was any service he was happy to provide for her, it was that.

But tonight she seemed more off than usual. He'd been noticing her steady decline over the past two weeks. She was less and less motivated to go to work than usual, and she'd barely let him touch her, despite admittedly needing to relax. If he couldn't do that, what the Hell could he do?

He listened as the shower turned on in the other room. He really wanted to do something special to help take her mind off of things. She needed to relax, and he needed... well... it didn't matter what he needed (although he had a hunch that he could kill two birds with one stone).

He thought for a few moments how he could make her feel better for tonight, just in the short term. There were lots of things that Annie liked to do, but very few of them were low-energy activities, and if there was anything Annie was currently lacking, it was extra energy to expend on some grandiose "relaxation" technique.

It took him a little bit of thought and effort, but Jeff finally did come up with a game plan for the evening. If there was anything in the world that he knew would take Annie's mind off things, it was romance. Jeff wasn't one for big romantic gestures, so he knew Annie would be shocked and thrilled if he managed to put together a genuine, classically romantic scene. Lucky for him, he had all of the right ingredients to make that happen. He wasted no time getting to work.

Jeff spent the majority of Annie's shower racing around their bedroom making sure everything was picture-perfect for when she finally emerged. When she finally shut off the shower, he quickly disrobed down to his boxer-briefs and picked out a white button-up from his closet. With a final, deep breath, he made his way to the bathroom door and gave it two soft taps.

"I'll be out in a sec," Annie called from inside.

"Can I come in?" There was a moment before he heard the door unlock. He smiled and pushed the door open, closing it quickly behind him so she wouldn't be able to see anything from the bedroom next door.

"You're naked," she noted, her own body wrapped in a towel as she dragged her comb through her damp hair.

"No I'm not," he said, gesturing to his boxer-briefs.

"Okay, you're_ mostly_ naked," she amended. She looked at the button-up he held in his hand and then up at him questioningly. "What's with the nice shirt?"

"Just a little idea I had," he said coyly. She raised an eyebrow, to which he smirked and said, "Drop the towel." She narrowed her eyes.

"Jeff, I'm really not in the mood for sex." Jeff reached out with his free hand, fingering the top of the towel just above her breasts.

"C'mon. I promise to make it worth your while," he tempted. Annie bit the inside of her lip as she watched him, searching his face for some kind of explanation. Finding none, she acquiesced, allowing the towel to fall to the floor. Jeff noted the tiniest hint of a flush on her face and chest as he took in the view. After a moment, he wrapped his shirt around her shoulders and pulled her damp hair from the back. She regarded him curiously as she pushed her arms through and let him do up a few buttons at her midsection.

"What are you up to?" she asked, curiosity and a hint of uncertainty evident in her tone. Jeff grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips.

"You'll see," he responded cryptically. She let out a small sigh, but Jeff caught the smile trying to fight its way onto her lips. He grinned and pulled the bathroom door open and guided her into their bedroom.

Annie gasped as she took in the scene. Jeff had turned off the light, replacing it with that of candles, casting the room in a flickering light that played over their skin in a tantalizing dance. She watched as the light flickered over Jeff's frame, all tanned skin and toned muscles exposed, save for the small area covered by his boxer briefs.

"Jeff," his name was a breath on her lips. He took her by the hand and she let him guide her into the space next to the bed, placing his hands on her waist.

"I figured you needed a little help to relax," he said with a small smile. Annie peered up at him, his face blurring slightly as a swell of emotion ran through her.

"You didn't have to do this," she said quietly.

"I wanted to," he said quickly. "You've been working your ass off, Annie. You deal with crappy people all day long, and even though it's beating you down, I know you're going to make it through... and then fire them all once you're administrator of that place." Annie giggled lightly, an errant tear falling from her eye. Jeff used a thumb to brush it away before cupping her face in his hands as he spoke to her. "But for now, you just need to keep fighting through all of that crap and show them what you're made of. Can you do that for me?" Annie bit the inside of her lip.

"I can do that," she said quietly. Jeff smiled and pulled her in for a small kiss.

"That's my girl." He wandered away from her then and picked up the remote for her iPod, attached to the dock on the nightstand. He flicked it on and Annie smiled as the song _Music Box_ by Cinematic Orchestra began to play. Jeff turned back to her, a small smile playing on his lips as he held his hand out to her.

"Dance with me?"

Wordlessly, Annie closed the distance between then and sunk into him. Jeff easily slipped his arms around her waist as she wound hers around his neck as best she could, resting her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat in time with the music as they began to sway. The soft acoustic melody spun them in slow, easy circles that Jeff's thumb mimicked on her lower back, pulling her close and holding the plains of her body against his.

Jeff felt Annie sink into him as the song progressed, their breathing falling into sync with each other and with the song as it grew and faded in between verses. Somewhere in the middle, Annie's hands left Jeff's neck and worked their way down to his chest and around his back, holding onto him tightly with her hands flush against the taught skin and muscle she found there.

They danced for what could have been just minutes, or hours, neither wanting to feel anything but each other, so close with so few layers between them. As the songs fell into a loop of acoustic piece after acoustic piece, their hands began to roam effortlessly over one another, Annie's over his back and arms, Jeff's up her sides and down to her backside, pulling her more firmly against him.

It was a slow burn as they let the music guide their hands, slipping over familiar curves and dips, lips finding skin and then lips and tongues.

Eventually, Jeff pushed his shirt off Annie's shoulders and slipped out of his boxers, and the two eased themselves into their bed that Jeff had turned down during his preparations. Annie laid out beneath him as their hands continued to roam, and lips slid against each others in an unhurried exploration.

Jeff dropped his lips to her neck, finding the place that curled her toes and lavishing it with attention as his hand began exploring her chest. Annie's legs fell open, providing a comfortable place for Jeff to settle as he worked over her body with his hands and lips, massaging each inch of skin and creating a steady burn within her exhausted body, awakening places that had been dulled by a tortuous day at work.

Annie kissed Jeff deeply as he slid into her, rocking deeply as he alternated between kissing and watching her. Annie laid back and let him take her there in the dimly lit room, the candlelight flickering in his eyes as he watched her with such depth of affection.

It was a slow burn that culminated in an easy, light climax for them both, just enough to relax them and lull them.

Jeff leaned over and flicked off the music before falling to Annie's side and pulling her in. He pulled the covers over their naked bodies as she sunk into his side, a small smile etched on her features, the lines of stress completely disappeared.

Somewhere in the back of Jeff's mind he knew that tomorrow Annie would go back to work and it would probably be awful, and she would probably be completely miserable when she got home at the end of the day. But for some reason, now that he'd managed this small miracle, he didn't feel quite so useless anymore.

**End**

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_Another super old prompt by midtega. Hope you all liked it! Let me know :)_


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